Monday, 28 September 2009

Warning - Gratuitous Holiday Snaps

Well, here I am, back again, after a lovely weekend. We went to Inveraray, which is a tiny little town in the west of Scotland on the shores of Loch Fyne. It has a castle, a jail, gorgeous scenery, a few pubs, and about seventeen thousand shops selling tourist tat. You can get See You Jimmy hats in every other shop in the high street. Why you would want to do such a thing I have no earthly clue, but there you go- they are, sadly, available.

We spent the whole weekend stuffing our faces. Here we are about to eat at the famous Loch Fyne seafood restaurant. I had oyster followed by lobster. Luckily the photos was taken before the meal because by the end of it I had lobster in my hair and butter all over my face. It was yummy. Not my face - that can never be described as yummy.

Inveraray Castle is the home of the Duke of Argyll. As with most Scottish history, all you really need to know about the historical earls and dukes of Argyll is that most of them didn't like the English, and conspired with...well, anyone else, against them. The castle is very grand, there are lots of paintings, fancy furnishings and nice cake in the cafe. As usual, I spent most of the time wandering around the castle trying to see into bits that you're not supposed to go in. I got caught opening a door. Whoops.

We also visited the jail/courthouse, which is a fascinating place with lots of dummies. This picture shows three of the dummies. It would have been a horrendous place to live, although in the 1840s new reforms brought in central heating, three meals a day and gas lighting (to replace no heat, no lights, one meal a day). Unfortunately, that turned out to be too much largesse in one go and people were queuing up to get in. Mind you, it wasn't very hard to get yourself thrown into jail. Walking around after dark on a Sunday would do it. One little boy got thrown into the cells for stealing a ginger biscuit. You could get 14 years for stealing a sheep, and 7 years for murder. I got to try the thumbscrews and a table you could lie on and be whipped, but enough of my personal life...

I had a nice little haul of gifts, including Nelson Algren's THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM, David Simon's HOMICIDE, Nick Cave's THE DEATH OF BUNNY MONROE (yippee!!), some personalised notepaper (I have a thing about paper), a couple of Muse albums, and tickets to the ballet (Matthew Bourne's Dorian Gray). And then last night we went to see Bombay Bicycle Club at one of my favourite Glasgow venues - King Tuts Wah Wah Hut. They were brilliant, although we brought the average age of the crowd up quite considerably...

And now, to return you to your regularly scheduled crime fiction, here are a couple of news items.

Welcome to Badsville

This here's Badsville - the home of Scottish crime fiction - news, interviews, reviews, book-related stuff, non book-related stuff, and any other random nonsense that takes my fancy (there, that should stop me getting done under the Trade Descriptions Act). It will focus on Scottish crime fiction authors, crime fiction books set in Scotland, and authors who have a great great-uncle twice removed who may once have played football for Scotland. But it will also cover anything else that tickles my fancy because...well, because I can.

The list of authors includes all those I could find websites for. If I've missed anyone off the list, please let me know. If you want to be interviewed (you mad fool) again, please let me know. And...well, that's about it really.

"It's all hilarious and exhausting; you can't help but love The Old Dogs" Shelf Awareness

"The way she orchestrates her comic set-pieces is nothing short of genius and designed to eke out every last piece of humour." Crimesquad

"...All of the action points toward the trainwreck of heist attempts, but Moore gives us much more, continuing the action (and the fun) long after the heist itself..." International Noir Fiction

"...a heist caper, a modern farce, an adventure, a Carry-On movie on acid. The twists and turns are impossible to predict and it is to her credit that no matter how ridiculous the sets of events might be she manages to make them seem entirely credible, in part because the motives of all those who inhabit the book are so deeply believable." Sea Minor

"Donna Moore is a master at creating colourful characters and putting them into laugh out loud situations. Combine that with strong dialogue and tight pacing, and you've got yourself a brilliant book well worth the read." I Love A Good Mystery

Currently Listening To

Catchy, reverby, retro indie pop. A cheerier and less edgy version of Jesus and Mary Chain mixed in with Wreckless Eric and the enrgy of The Ramones. Nothing that will revolutionise indie music, but just really great fun, dance around the living room tunes that are feelgood and upbeat. Favourite tracks - IF YOU WANNA, BLOW IT UP and WRECKIN' BAR (RA RA RA).

Psychedelic throbbing guitar noise, very 60s, a little like an indie rock version of The Doors. Sludgy, moody, a little bit creepy in places. Favourite tracks - BAD VIBRATIONS and HAUNTING AT 1300 MCKINLEY. Although this album doesn't have my favourite Black Angels track - that's this one - BLOODHOUNDS ON MY TRAIL.

Compilation album of Violent Feemes tracks from 1981-1993 this has been one of my favourite albums for ages. With so many UK bands mixing indie and folk and ending up sounding naff and twee and really annoying, the Violent Femmes do the whole punk/country/folk thing superbly. And I love Gordon Gano's voice. Favourite tracks GONE DADDY GONE, 36-24-36, AMERICAN MUSIC and the utterly brilliant and eerie COUNTRY DEATH SONG (about as noir as it gets).